SANTIAGO, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Latin America's economy should
grow less than forecast this year, as the export-dependent
region faces threats from stimulus measures in the developed
world and an unresolved debt crisis in Europe, the
Inter-American Development Bank said on Saturday.

The IADB now sees the export-dependent region expanding
between 3.5 percent and 4 percent in 2013, down from an August
forecast for 4.2 percent growth though still higher than last
year's estimated expansion.

"One of the problems is this cloud of uncertainty over the
global economy," IADB president Luis Alberto Moreno said when
asked by Reuters on the sidelines of the summit of Latin
American and European business leaders in Santiago, the Chilean
capital.

The United Nations last month also lowered its growth
outlook for Latin America and the Caribbean, saying the region
will likely grow by 3.8 percent in 2013, less than previously
forecast, as slower growth in Mexico weighs against a recovery
in Brazil, Argentina and the region's brisk domestic demand.

Either way, the region's growth is seen picking up pace from
the UN's downward-revised 3.1 percent expansion view for 2012,
which largely defied fallout as a result of softer demand from
key trade partner China and lingering euro zone debt woes.

Moreno also echoed several Latin American leaders concerns
that stimulus measures in the developed world will trigger more
capital flows that could further strengthen the
commodities-dependent region's currencies.

"These issues by central banks.... become a problem for
emerging countries for various reasons," Moreno said. "Chiefly
because they generate the potential that financial bubbles
arise."

Moreno said the bank would lend around $12 billion to the
region this year, up slightly from 2012 levels.